Germicide: Live At The Whisky, 1977 Review

Release Date: 1982Label: ROIRGenres: American Underground, Hardcore Punk, Punk, L.A. Punk, American PunkNumber Of Tracks: 11
This lo-fi live set shows that the group barely knew how to play their instruments, play in time, keep a steady tempo, or truly function as a live band.

Germicide: Live At The Whisky, 1977
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on april 30, 2007 0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Sound: Sound? Where do I start? The way this album sounds is almost impossible to describe. It's great in a messy way. Especially if you are a hardcore fan of the Germs you will love hearing them at their first show ever, hearing how misunderstood they are, before they hit big sucess. In between songs you'll hear Darby (named Bobby Pyn at the time) taunting the audience, or putting up with them for that matter, hence the album mainly consist of "F--k You" and, "Come up here then, you big pussy." In my opinion however, it makes the album that much more exciting, and, as I said before, you'll go crazy over it if you like the Germs. The first thing you'll hear is an anonymous voice asking Pat to "Put some underwear on...", (the back of his jeans are ripped open and his ass is in clear view) and after that a cavalcade of introductions, Kim Fowely intros Rodney Bigenheimer intros Belinda, (Donna Rhia) who explains that she had to quit the Germs because they were "to dirty" and "sluts". This is all very interesting, of course, but then, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Germs, with a particularly atonal burst of feedback from Pat's borrowed guitar, begin one of the most primitive and/ or beautiful messes ever captured on tape, record, CD, or any other information storage and retrieval device known or unknown, ever. It is all very, very cool. All of the text between the first asterik and the second one except for the words in parentheses is text taken directly from an article written by Don Bolles, drummer for the Germs, that I found in the little pamplhet thingy that came with the CD. // 9

Lyrics: I am not sure if Darby was wasted at this show, although I don't think he is, he still occasionally sings everywhere except for the microphone, and, if you seen the DVD, he forgets his lines and you can spot him reading the lyrics off of a sheet of paper. All in all, it's incredible fun, and you'll surely enjoy Darby tell off some guy as the man hollers "Get your f--king teeth fixed!" (I've seen Darby Crash's teeth, and they are pretty bad), while Darby replies "Why don't you get your f--king brain fixed!!". (The Audience bursts into laughter). I'm not going to spoil it for you though, so just go out and order the album like I did. // 8

Overall Impression: So perhaps half of the time Darby Crash isn't in sync with the music thats seems to be being thrown almost all at once, perhaps this album only hangs by the borderline between chaos and a masterpiece, and perhaps this is probably one of the most misunderstood albums, by one of the most misunderstood bands, in the most misunderstood phase of the most misunderstood pop genre in the history of all-time. But if you are not planning on buying this album because of all these reasons, then I don't why you are buying it in the first place. // 9